Opera 18: Sessions, bookmarks, multi-threading, compared to 12.16

I'm still using Opera 12.16. At the time 15 came out I Googled the Internet and realized upgrading would come with a high risk from the point of stability and usability. 12.16 is great, very efficient Bookmarks system, Sessions are just great, overall fast (enough, still), ...

MULTI-THREADING
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However, 12.16 has one big disadvantage: it's single-threaded! My computer has a processor that comprises 4 cores, each 2 threads, so 8 threads, and Opera 12.16 just runs on a single thread. As a result my sessions, with 20 to 40 tabs, run a lot faster on Internet Explorer 11, than on my O12. In IE11 each tab has its own process and consequently all tabs are distributed over all threads in the processor in a fashion that all 8 threads are pretty much equally loaded; this can be seen in Task Manager. Compared to O12, this makes IE blazing fast, and you can see that in the Link Speed in Task Manager->Networking; the link speed is saturated when opening a Folder with 10 to 20 favorites in a tab Group: that never happened when opening any of my sessions in O12.

So, what about multi-threading in Opera 18? Or is O18 still single-threaded?

SESSIONS
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The Sessions Feature in O12 is great. It does not exist in IE11 but you can emulate O12 Sessions in IE11: put all your favorites in one single folder. Then open that folder in a tab Group, and all favorites in that folder open at once in the correct order as they appear in the favorites folder. And you can open several different favorites folder in a tab Group mode in different IE11 Windows, thereby emulating several different O12 sessions in different browser windows. Great!

But what about sessions in O18? How much better or worse is it in comparison to O12?

BOOKMARKS
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From what I read on the Internet, O18 bookmarks are not all that great and it seems O18 has made a step backwards compared to O12. But just how bad is it? I got a huge number of bookmarks and I really need to maintain oversight.

Time to decide
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Recently I got problems with www.bloomberg.com . My O12 crashes when I reload all tabs of the session where bloomberg.com is in. In IE11 all is OK, no crashes on bloomberg.com. Also my other sessions in O12, where bloomberg.com does not appear, do not crash upon reloading all tabs.

Considering that O12 will probably not receive any security updates anymore, I might have to move away from Opera, unless O18 is multi-threaded and has a speed advantage after all over IE11.

So, your comments on previous questions would be very much appreciated. Depending on the response to previous questions I'll see if I find it worth testing O18, or just move right away to IE11 or maybe even another browser.

Furthermore, the download page does not mention whether O18 is 32 or 64-bit.
Least thing Opera should do is mention very clearly/explicitly on their download page weather O18 (and O18+) is 32 or 64-bit.

So, is O18 then 32 or 64-bit? If 32-bit than this is a major step backward.

Done some research, and indeed, it looks like there is no 64 bit version available (yet) for 15+; what a disappointment! Is it not evident that 64 bit is main stream? Just wonder what Opera's plans are for any 64 bit version?
j

Session don't exist in O18, except like IE — you can save a set of tabs as a speed dial folder.

Each tab runs in a separate process.

Bookmarks are fine, if you can manage with just the Bookmarks Bar. Organise them well into folders and subfolders — up to 2000 shouldn't be any problem.

12.16 will probably receive security updates if they are needed.

I say install it and use it alongside 12.16 while you evaluate it.

Where is the bookmarks bar? Why is it not visible, why is it not mentioned in the opera help? I cannot find any reference to bookmarks anywhere. Please help me find it. Opera provides no way I can see to import bookmarks from Firefox.

And there are no replies to my request for help with bookmarks in the Newbies thread. Why the eerie silence?

Probably because I have been out to get my lunch, and nobody can be bothered to repeat what's been said a 100 times before. It's also the case that the Opera Browser forum is far more active than the Opera for Windows forum.

If you're migrating from Firefox, I suggest install Opera 12.16 and importing your bookmarks into that. Organise the folders if you need to.

If you want to try Opera 18, installing it after installing Opera 12.16 should automatically detect your previous Opera installation. It's not worth using yet IMO, but it does have some benefits over Opera 11 or 12.

The next stage is to enable the Quick Access Bar (aka Bookmarks Bar, Personal Bar, Favourites Bar) by typing opera:flags in the URL field. Restart Opera and enable the Quick Access Bar in Settings. Now you should have the Bookmark Importer, which can import bookmarks selectively into the Quick Access Bar or Speed Dial.

Speed Dial is good for about 30 very frequently visited sites. QAB for the rest, and Stash for bookmarks that you will probably discard later.